It could and probably will be posited once The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten goes under the critical microscope that post-rock trio Three Mile Pilot didn't disband so much as reproduce. A little indie-rock binary fission gave us Black Heart Procession and Pinback — one with Pall Jenkins's blinking heart and reedy bellow, the other with Zach Smith's unique bass trait of firing fret-board pings through delicate hooks without ever touching the sides.

I flashed back when I dropped the laser on the polycarbonate and heard them together again on opener "Battle." I'm lucky enough to have seen these guys when they were learning to crawl. One night in particular, opening for Sebadoh at the World Beat Center with a bass, a drum, and a voice (Jenkins was guitar-less then), Smith, Jenkins, and drummer Tom Zinser sounded as if they were making the best of being trapped in that drum, thrumming, plucking, and wailing at the wall — "Legs don't fail me now!"

Due to drop via Temporary Residence on September 28, The Inevitable Past is a 5-year work-in-progress that not only fills the 13-year-deep void since Another Desert, Another Sea but overflows in Smith and Jenkins’s generous low-strung textures — robes of it, really, for your melancholic EQ — Zinser’s lockstep thud, and cool washes of album-rock synth. The spaceman on the cover art seems appropriate to 3MP themes of final departures (“Still Alive”), looking back on unfamiliar homes (lead single “Planets” and 3MP throwback “Grey Clouds”), and alienated emotions (haunted groove “The Threshold”). If a heart breaks in space, etc.

There will be a listening party at Starlite restaurant and lounge on India Street the night of the release.

• Album: The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten (2010)
• Artist: Three Mile Pilot
• Label: Temporary Residence
• Songs: 12